Fair play to Hatebreed, despite the not inconsiderable success they’ve achieved they have always seemed to maintain the attitude to their craft as they did way back in their formative years. They may be capable of packing out huge shows around the world but they’ve still got the same hunger in both their albums and live performances as they did when they were on the toilet circuit 10 or 15 years ago.

‘The Divinity Of Purpose’ might be their seventh studio album (their sixth of original material) but it maintains the same enthusiasm, bluster and outright aggression that their original kick in the bollocks ‘Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire’ provided sixteen years ago . Lead off track ‘Put It To The Torch’ has been whetting the appetite of many on YouTube over the past couple of weeks and wastes no time in getting everything into the swing of things. They may have inadvertently spawned a host of shite Metalcore wannabes over the years, but Hatebreed can be forgiven pretty much anything when they continue to rip out Grade A metallic hardcore like ‘Honour Never Dies’ and ‘The Language’.

They might have a fairly simplistic formula for the main part, with the crushing riffs of Frank Novinec and Wayne Lozinak being the focal point of most songs, and the likes of ‘Indivisible’ or ‘Own Your World’ in the hands of lesser bands might be unremarkable, but the moment Hatebreed plug in and let rip they seem to operate on a completely different plain. Simply put, they are the dogs bollocks of heavy aggressive music, and in Jamey Jasta they have a frontman who sings every song like it’s his last. He might be a high profile figure in the entertainment world these days but he still has the attitude of the wide-eyed fanboy who used to blag his way to Bad Brains gigs , or tour the States for three quarters of the year in the back of a van. The songs are still anthems of struggle, oppression and injustice, and while cynics might cite a band as successful as Hatebreed as being removed from such subject matter in real life, you have to remember this is a band that has been the essence of hardcore over the years and a departure from their roots would be wholly ridiculous.

But don’t be fooled into thinking this is a formulaic metallic hardcore album either. Sure there’s flat-out slabs of blasting riffage but there’s also a fair smattering of influences they’ve picked up along the way, the at times Slayer-esque ‘Dead Man Breathing’ being a fine example. Also you’ve got the title track which is a fucking monster of a song. Skulking in on a brooding bass riff, it slow boils on a monstrous mid-paced rhythm and a Jasta vocal delivery that fairly rips tour throat out. Underpinned with subtle melodies it is the album’s stand-out track.

All in all then another reminder that leaders continue to embarrass the followers regardless of music genre. ‘The Divinity Of Purpose’ isn’t a perfect album (there are a couple of fillers like the Crowbar-riffed but a bit too lumbering ‘Nothing Scars Me’) but it’s a damn fucking good one, and one that would piss on most of the toss purporting to be Hardcore or Metalcore, but ham-fistedly executed on seven string guitars by fuckwits who spend too much on hair dye, haircuts and shiny new tattoo sleeves.

It‘s good to know that along with Terror and Agnostic Front, Hatebreed will continue kick the shit out of your senses with the kind of hardcore that used to make you get goose-bumps before some fringecore fuckwits tried to destroy it and commoditise it.